Hat-trick hero as Sharks power past plucky Tigers

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Wests Tigers v Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks

Sione Katoa was the hat-trick hero as the Cronulla Sharks overcame a plucky Wests Tigers outfit to run away 36-12 winners in front of just over 9,000 fans at CommBank Stadium on Thursday night.

The Tigers answered the challenge early in defence on Thursday night, repelling a few Sharks raids to keep the visitors tryless after 15 minutes as Cronulla instead settled for a single penalty goal.

Eventually though the Sharks were destined to break the Tigers open, having already done just that through the middle of the ruck but struggled to capitalise.

The first try of the night came in the 16th minute went right and Will Kennedy held up the ball, passing it to Jesse Ramien who shoveled the ball to Katoa in the corner.

The winger then barged over, although Nicho Hynes missed the conversion from the sideline to leave the score at 6-0 after that earlier penalty goal.

It didn't take long for Cronulla to extend its lead, with a Hynes bomb dropped by Asu Kepaoa and the Sharks quickly taking advantage as their halfback double-pumped it for a rampaging Siosifa Talakai.

Hynes added the extras to make it 12-0 after 22 minutes and despite their promising start, things threatened to unravel like they had the week prior against North Queensland.

Instead, the Tigers rallied to score the next two tries of the game and level it up at 12-all by halftime.

First a bit of second-phase play, sparked first by an Alex Seyfarth offload, ended with Tommy Talau reaching out to score in the 27th minute.

Seyfarth was at it again just before halftime, with the Tigers gifted field position after Ronaldo Mulitalo spilt a Brandon Wakeham bomb.

On this occasion the interchange forward played it short to deceive the Cronulla defence and send Shawn Blore steaming over under the posts, with both tries converted.

The Tigers needed to carry that momentum into the second half or quickly risk falling behind against a Sharks team that was sure to get more clinical in attack the longer the game dragged on.

Unfortunately for the home side an early Isaiah Papali'i error saw the Sharks go on the attack right away and Cronulla threatened to re-establish its lead twice - only to be just denied.

First, Hynes took it right up to the line and passed short to Briton Nikora who was stopped just short of the line before Blayke Brailey put in a deft kick for Wade Graham which looked destined to produce points.

A late Jahream Bula hand though batted it dead, showing the exact kind of desperation in defence the Tigers had been lacking in last week's 74-0 loss.

The Brailey dropout and extended pressure eventually led to Cronulla's third try of the night though, with a well-worked play and runners in motion seeing Katoa pick up his second.

Hynes then slotted the conversion to make it 18-12 as the Sharks looked in a solid position to push on for the kind of comprehensive victory many were expecting. 

Poor ball handling and general ill-discipline from Cronulla though continually presented the Tigers with opportunities to level the game once again, and they went close on two occasions. 

First, Wakeham spotted space in the corner and kicked on the third tackle for a flying Junior Tupou only for a late bounce to fool the Tigers winger.

Then Talau looked to have scored his second after coming down with a Wakeham bomb, but replays showed he didn't have control of it as the ball went forward into the arms of Hynes.

Two tries went begging as the Sharks then went down the other end of the field and made those close calls even harder to take, with Ramien scoring off a Hynes kick.

Hynes hit the posts but the score still had pushed out to 22-12, with luck hardly on the Tigers' side on Thursday night.

It took a while but the Sharks eventually put the game to bed as Hynes cleverly put Talakai one-on-one with Starford To'a again, with the centre easily finishing on top of his rival to score.

Having already threatened to split them earlier in the game, Brailey then later made a clean break to set up Hynes for his first try of the night - pushing the score out to 32-12.

Katoa then iced the night with his third of the game in spectacular fashion, scoring in the corner just before the siren as Cronulla ran out comfortable winners in the end.